


This Dark Earth

by notbug (KageKashu)



Series: Ymir's Children [3]
Category: Guardians of Childhood & Related Fandoms, Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-07
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2018-01-23 21:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1580336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KageKashu/pseuds/notbug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jökul's original world was a dark reflection of Jack's. We know that. The question is, whatever happened to this dark world of Jökul's? And why?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

* * *

"When the nightmares dragged him away, little did we know, it was the beginning of the end..." 

* * *

It was a different world, a darker, warmer, crueler reflection of the one Jökul eventually came to know. Back then, he was Jack, and when the world changed around him, he was forced to change with it. Joining the Guardians had been good for him, even though he had rejected them at first, out of a sense of bitter paranoia. His earliest encounters with other spirits hadn't been kind, and while he was still a bit naïve, he was angry at the position he had been cast into for nearly his entire life. As an ice wight, Jack Frost had been viewed with suspicion, even more so because he was _different_ than the others had been. He had seen them, what they were, and didn't want to be like them. He could still be cruel and capricious, but that was as much for having a trickster's nature as it was in his heritage of ice. 

The Pitch Black of his world was a different sort of creature. What had once been the Nightmare King was now just a shell of a body, choked full of fearlings. Jack knew fearlings. There weren't many spirits of Earth that _didn't_ know fearlings. They were old and bitter companions, having slipped away from the Nightmare King regularly for millennia. The creatures would sneak into dark places and wait, and occasionally they would get what they were looking for - a susceptible soul. They would wriggle into the unsuspecting victim's body, too deep to eject, and create a being known as a Nightmare Man. Unlike fearlings, Nightmare Men were intelligent. Cunning. They had the ability to plan. The understanding of a soul. A conscience. The conscience did little good, however, beyond telling them exactly how to harm others more poignantly. Thankfully, Nightmare Men didn't last. Once the soul within the body was corrupted enough, it became just another fearling, and the body would fail. 

No one understood how the Nightmare King had lasted so long. He didn't used to be a mere body full of fearlings. What made him the _Nightmare King_ , was that he was the greatest and most dangerous of the Nightmare Men. No one knew when the soul within the body finally gave in, but the Pitch Black that the Guardians defeated was just a conglomeration of fearlings, whose body was about to fail. He had no emotion beyond avarice, and his eyes were cold and empty, burning pits of nothing. He didn't even seem to care about winning, only about destroying them. 

His body was already losing cohesion, when the nightmares came for him. What he feared, that drew them to him, Jack couldn't say, but in his eyes was something like hatred, and he screamed as he was dragged away, wisps of darkness escaping as they pulled him into the hole that opened into his lair. 

He wished he'd known then, what Pitch Black meant to the world. 

Earth had grown up around the Nightmare King, and without him, something in it had broken irreparably. 

Jack, thereafter, had gone back to doing what he did best, bringing snow and play to the world, and the other Guardians returned to their duties as well, not knowing that there was anything wrong. They kept in contact, but weren't worried about anything new cropping up. The fearlings that escaped with Pitch's death were easy enough to subdue when they were found, and it seemed as though everything was going peachy keen. Jack was beside himself with joy, having made real friends, and having human believers who could see him. It was wonderful. It was terrifying. He planned on making the most of it while he could, because he was aware of one great, horrible truth. Good things didn't last. Not for him. 

So he waited for the other shoe to drop. 

* * *


	2. Chapter One: Missing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something seems to be missing, and Pitch Black is, indeed, dead.

The shadow had come screaming out of nowhere, and Jack had chased it down mercilessly, eventually icing the thing (probably a fearling) to the ground. Even splayed out in ice, the thing writhed sickly, a black ichor dripping from the gashes the wind had left upon its form. Cautiously, Jack poked at it with the hook of his crook, and, like the nightmare, an odd sort of shock seemed to run through it as he scraped at it. It tried to twist away, but he could see that it was already fading, and soon there was nothing left but inky black patches were it had bled. 

"That's kinda freaky," he muttered darkly, frowning at the gross stuff left behind when the thing had dissipated. He glanced up at the moon, trying to determine if Manny had even noticed the shadow thing or not. It was impossible to say. "Well, what do you think?" He arched an eyebrow and waited to see if the moon would even respond. Manny was fickle like that. Some nights, he had been Jack's sole comfort, gently soothing his fears, trying to reassure him that his existence was valid, and that he had been brought into this life for a reason. Other times, he was distant, silent, a cold patriarch with an unforgiving eye, watching his every move. Tonight, it seemed, he was a little of both - a gentle touch rolling across Jack's mind, dismissing his worry with something that came across as a shrug. Although Jack waited a little longer, nothing else was forthcoming. "Well, I'm glad we had this discussion," he said, rolling his eyes sarcastically. "That was a lot of territory covered! Thank a bunch!" 

It had been several years since Pitch's defeat, and there was something bothering him as he seeded a mid-autumn frost on the trees, inducing the retreat of chlorophyll to bring out the bright colors that would soon cover the deciduous forests across the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere. A fearling here and there was a small enough issue. Even the humans knew how to handle them, and the Burgess kids did so even better than most. Jack's toes clenched around the limb of the tree on which he stood, and he dragged his staff behind himself, deep in thought. "It's not just the thing, you know," he told the moon. "I haven't seen any of my... ilk," he continued delicately, not caring to think to much about the other ice spirits, "lately. It's weird, because they're usually out already, freezing mud puddles and stuff..." Jack sighed, moving to leap from the branch to a building, trailing frost behind him. "This is really bothering me." 

The moon still told him a whole lot of nothing, and Jack wondered if he just didn't care, or if he was prattling on a subject that Manny didn't think warranted the worry. Eventually, he did get a response, but it wasn't reassuring. There was a pulse of something that felt like confusion, curiosity and a faint hint of regret. A soothing blossom of love and reassurance later, he knew that he was completely alone, and that Manny had turned his attention to other things. "Yeah, you do that," he said, feeling fairly certain of his interpretation that Manny planned to look into things. "Maybe, in the meantime, I'll ask North." 

* * *

The man was an excellent resource, not that Jack had any reason to know that - he just had every reason to assume so. North always had something to say, on every subject it seemed, even if it didn't seem relevant at the time. Once there, the large holiday spirit tried to feed Jack cookies and hot chocolate (which he was reluctant to accept on grounds that it was hot, and he was not, but he figured that one day he would try it, if only so that North would quit offering), while trying to get a clear description of the shadow creature from him. "Gross," Jack told him, because it was. "It had too many eyes, too many tongues, teeth and mouths. It dripped everywhere and was just generally slimy and gross. It hurt to look at it. I'm pretty sure it was a fearling." 

The Cossack hummed under his breath thoughtfully. "Might be. Just might be. Is generally not good, that they are still this bold." One massive hand gently steered him into the library, by his shoulder. "Your ice spirits, though. I am not sure how this is problem." It didn't take long at all for North to find a book that showed a creature very much like the one Jack had seen, even though they had gone directly into an older section of books. "It looks like fearling, probably is fearling," North sighed, scrubbing his thick fingers through his hair. 

Jack scowled down at the illustration. It was really freaky looking, and while it was shaped right, there was something very different. "It wasn't like that, though," he hedged. He was still sure that it had been exactly what he thought, but... Well, the one in the book looked a hell of a lot scarier than any fearling he had ever seen. "Not really. I mean, it was mostly gross, and it wasn't all that scary. This thing looks pretty freaking terrifying, and I wouldn't just go chasing something that scary-" a partial truth "-and what I saw was really weak, like it was dying even before I blasted it." 

"We maybe go see Pitch's lair," North said, flicking through the pages. "If he sends them out, he may still be dangerous. Even if they are weak, they are still fearlings..." 

Jack allowed himself to be convinced easily, if only because he wanted another look at Pitch's lair, which had looked really interesting the last time he had been there, and he hadn't had time to explore. He didn't expect to find Pitch though. He could have sworn, during that final battle, that Pitch was done for. 

Eventually, they dredged up Bunny, who was just about the opposite of busy, so early in the fall, and convinced him to come along on the trip. Sandy and Tooth begged off, because unlike the other three, they couldn't afford to take a night off so easily. Bunny was... Jack got the feeling that Bunny still hated him. If it weren't for that animosity, Jack might have gone to ask Bunny about the other ice spirits, but... Even now, the giant rabbit watched him with a lack of trust that _hurt_. "Yo, mate, I don't think anybody's home," Bunny said, nose wiggling as he sought the scents in the air. He sneezed, hard. "It's nothin' but a dust trap now, I figure. And while the magic may be gone, I still don't like the feel of this place. Can we be done yet?" 

"Hey, check this out," commented Jack, hovering over what looked a little like the torn remnants Pitch Black's robes. A black, viscous liquid oozed out from beneath them, and Jack lifted them with the end of his crook, not wanting to touch them with his bare hands. The liquid dripped slowly from the cloth, and the frost wight pulled a face at it. In the gooey mess left on the floor, something that looked almost like human bones remained. "Eyew," he said, pointing the robes at Bunny. "I think I found Pitch Black." 

The look on the rabbit's face was priceless. So was the way he gagged. "Aw, man, put that down! You don't know where it's been!" 

"Down here, melting?" Jack guessed, but dislodged the gooey robes from the end of his staff anyway. It was pretty gross, and he didn't want to become infected somehow. The excursion left them confused, and in North's case, troubled. Jack put it from his mind, mostly because, if North's worries were founded, the rest of the guardians were sure to find out. Anything that could harm the children was their enemy, he supposed, and while he thought on a smaller scale than the others, he did recognize that things had a tendency, if ignored, to escalate from small to large scale. He wondered what that meant, that they were ignoring what had happened to the other ice spirits?


	3. Chapter Two: Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which global warming is a thing, and Jack does North a favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first hints of Jackrabbit :)

Global warming was a thing. Icecaps shrank, but just as often, glacial expansion would occur, and the world would grow cooler for a while. It was a cycle, just like any other. Years passed, hot weather patterns becoming the global norm. Drought affected large parts of the world, and Jack found himself restricted to the more extreme ends of the world, even at the height of winter. He hadn't seen another ice or snow spirit in years, but he continued to do as he always did, hoping that someone would tell him to do something else, something more. 

He hadn't felt so _alive_ in decades, and strangely, it felt wrong. He was warm. He sweated. He was just generally miserable. He had never sweated before, except when having sex, and he hadn't done that in quite a while. 

It was a strange sort of relief, when North approached him one year, asking him about snow spirits. "I haven't seen any in years," he said miserably. "I asked Manny about it, but he hasn't gotten back to me." He kicked his feet back and forth before crossing them and holding still. There was a strange gnawing feeling in his gut that just wouldn't go away. 

"You can make snow, no?" asked North, looking hopeful. "Christmas has been not good. It is failing. I know you have been noticing things are strange, Jack. I worry." 

Just thinking of the refreshing cold of snow on the wind, Jack began to smile. "You need a nice, snowy Christmas?" he asked, drifting upward and around to float at eyelevel with the holiday spirit who he had, by then, very much accepted as his friend. 

"Is not snowing for Christmas in many years, Jack," North sighed. "It was not you who brought the Christmas snow before, but I never knew who did. Could you, for a friend, make it snow for Christmas this year?" he asked, beginning to smile at Jack's excitement. 

It was the first time Jack actually went out of his way to cause blizzards, despite what a certain spring holiday spirit believed. When he was done, the entire Northern Hemisphere was blanketed in crystal white. It was probably the first time they got snow in Malaysia, certain parts of Venezuela, Brazil, Kenya and the Congo in millennia. Even Sri Lanka and Hawaii had a fine coat of powder by the time he was done. He did try not to harm anyone while he was at it, but, hey, accidents happen, especially in a heavy snow. And he managed to make most of it stick past New Year's. 

The gnawing in his stomach faded, and he felt normal again, if tired, and as the Guardians held their annual New Year's party, the others watched him with awe. "You did that all on your own?" Toothiana wondered, buzzing happily. "Mmm, it made the children so happy..." and beside her, Sandy flashed him a thumbs up, grinning, with symbols flashing over his head of snowflakes and dancing children. The little man was acting rather dopey, to Jack's amusement. 

"Are you drunk?" he asked, grinning back. Sandy began to shake his head, and then, with a light bulb of sand flashing over his head, he nodded enthusiastically. "Well, good. I think we should all get drunk!" Jack felt better than he had in _months_. That very same evening, Jack relearned something about himself. He had believed for the longest time that he couldn't get drunk. Now he knew that a hot apple cider could do it to him. Best. Discovery. Ever. 

It was late when the small, joyous party wound down, and Jack was halfway to falling asleep when Bunny came to sit with him. He was silent for long enough that Jack began to dismiss his presence, and when he spoke, his gruff voice was quiet enough that Jack knew he wouldn't have to answer if he didn't want to. All Bunny said was, "How did you do it?" He didn't even seem to expect Jack to reply, and he continued a moment later. "You're different from the other ice spirits, and I don't understand why..." 

Jack knew he was different. Most ice spirits that he had met had been nasty creatures, cruel and cold. They liked a good game, but they tended to kill whatever they played with. He had decided a long time ago to be different, if only to spite the others. "The exception proves the rule," he eventually said, barely able to keep his eyes open to meet Bunny's wide green ones. "I didn't want to be like everyone else. Who does? The other ice spirits were no fun. I'd..." He yawned, tears touching the corners of his eyes. "I'd rather be juvenile than malicious. Besides. You know it was Manny that revived me, right?" 

"Revived?" Bunny asked dumbly, ears flattening in realization. "You were brought back?" 

"Uh huh. You're warm," he added, leaning against Bunny's furry side. It was a more pleasant quality of warmth than what he had been suffering for the rest of the year. The air around them was still crisp, and it was just... nice. "You didn't know that? I guess it isn't well known. I drowned trying to protect my sister." He was so happy that it had been him rather than her. He had gotten to watch her grow up and marry, and he paid a close eye to her descendants to this very day. Jamie was one of them, through his mother. "I still watch my family, and I love them very much." He could feel the confusion radiating from Bunny at what he said. Dead spirits didn't have much better of a reputation than ice spirits, and the mixture sounded like a recipe for disaster. Admittedly, with creatures such as the yuki onna, this wasn't an unwarranted opinion. He smiled slightly, rubbing his face into the soft fur of Bunny's shoulder when the larger spirit didn't immediately pull away. "It was an act of love," he said gently. "How could you expect me to have become evil?" 

To that, Bunny seemed to have no response, so Jack allowed himself to fall asleep. 

* * *

The following year, much to North's mingled amusement and chagrin, Jack flew out again, seeding snow across the globe for a white Christmas. He would be happy to keep doing it, if that's what it took to keep his friends going. Christmas was important for both humans and spirits, and Jack would do what he could to allow it to continue. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have at least one more chapter already prepared...  
> Stay tuned for Chapter Three: Worship.


	4. Three: Worship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the other ice and snow spirits missing, Jack takes over their duties, only to hear his name on the tongues of adult humans... and Bunny finds that Spring is no longer welcome.

* * *

There was a palpable relief in both the spirit and mortal communities that winter seemed to be returning to normal, even if it was completely up to Jack to bring it. He was no longer merely frosting leaves on bright autumn mornings, or riding the snow laden winds in the depths of winter as he had before. There were fall spirits taking over some of his previous games - duties - and wind wights taking the snow with them to further destinations, making it much easier for Jack, who was unused to receiving help on his rounds. Remembering how the other ice spirits had been, it hadn't occurred to him to ask for help, but he thanked each nature spirit who did so. Yeah, it made them nervous, but it was only polite. 

For the first time, he heard an adult speak his name as though they thought he might be a person - "If you're real," said the young woman, a college student whose eyes were reddened from rubbing, "can you make it snow early?" She went on to moan that she couldn't afford to get sick again this year. It wouldn't have been so strange, if it weren't for the fact that she was an adult. Then, as though a gate had opened, suddenly they were all over, saying his name like a prayer. "Please make the snow come early. Please, Jack Frost, make it snow." 

When the moon was next in the sky, Jack asked Manny what the hell was going on. A feeling of concern, resolve and a query was the moon's response, followed by the impression of great heat, and cool relief. "Give them what they want?" he asked and waited. The response was reluctant, but affirmative. "I'll have to talk to the fall spirits," he said, after thinking for a while. "They should at least get a warning." 

The first autumn spirit he found was relieved to see him, which he found strange, and they looked confounded when he warned them that he planned to bring in winter early. "We were... I mean, I was, and some of the others were, ah, meaning to look for you, because... because... Thank you." 

He leaned against his staff, head tilted, and just looked at them for a minute. Eventually, he announced, "You're weird," and left, taking to the sky to begin exactly what he had said. 

* * *

"I don't know what to do, mate," said Bunny, looking more tired than Jack had ever seen him. "First, they want winter early, and I guess I can understand that, but spring? It's like the little ones dread my footsteps these days, and I can't take that. Anything but that." He looked like he might be genuinely ill, and Jack didn't know how to help. So he just sat there and listened to him talk, and they drank shitty beer together. For all the humans begged for winter to last a little longer, an uncomfortable heatwave had settled in instead, pushing Jack's snow back into the farthest reaches of the world. "Their parents won't let them search for eggs. They don't want to play outside. And there's all these bugs. I had to lay protection spells on the googies to keep them from getting infested with parasites. I just... I just don't know." 

"New beginnings and hope, right?" asked Jack, trying to cheer Bunny up. "You won't make a good Guardian of Hope if you let yourself down so easy." 

"I don't see you being much Fun lately, either," Bunny replied darkly. "You're all hard work and deadlines." 

He hadn't been much fun, he knew, but he just couldn't seem to find the time for it. Even this beer, warm and gross tasting as it was, was wasting valuable time. "Fuck, I've become you," he groaned into his hands. Even if he had time, though, he was sure he wouldn't feel like it, because just before Easter, Jamie and Sophie both had gotten sick, and he was still worried about them. "Jamie and Sophie are in the hospital. They don't know what's wrong with them." Bunny cringed. "They've been in there for a couple weeks now, but they're getting worse." 

"It's not natural," Bunny said. His green eyes were shadowed but intent. "It's not just the Bennetts. My eggs, they shouldn't get parasites, mate. They're magic eggs. And it ain't just Easter. Before you pushed winter back on track, it was Christmas. And it's everywhere. I just can't think what the bloody hell's going on. The usual suspects are _gone_. There ain't no major plague spirits anymore. Modern vaccinations took care of them. Pitch is... goo in a pit. And you notice? In summer, that's when it gets the worst." 

Jack had the sudden realization that _that_ was why the humans wanted winter. "So that's why..?" 

"Hate to break it to you, Frosty, but it's startin' to look like you're our bastion of hope." A wide eyed stare was the only reaction Jack had, and it took forever to get his tongue out of the knot it had worked into. Bunny managed to continue before Jack was able to speak. "Humans are more intuitive than they think. And they're praying to _you_. Like it or not, prayers give our kind power like nothing else. Not much longer before adults'll start spotting you in the street. That's more than _belief_ , Jack. It's worship." 

"But I don't... I don't..." That was weird. After a moment, he summed up his feelings with "I'm not the sort of guy you should put that kind of stock in." He always screwed up whenever someone needed him, and when he said so, Bunny scoffed at him and ruffled his hair. 

"Not true. I always been rather caught up myself, boyo, but we've never put more faith in you than you deserve. Just... I thought you could use a head's up." He didn't seem to mind when Jack leaned up against him, a little like he had that first New Year's after North had asked his help, so Jack curled up against him, letting his warmth seep into his bones. 

Jack felt strange. Almost drunk, almost dizzy, and there was that uncomfortable gnawing sensation in his guts again. "You shouldn't let me do this," he said, his eyes half-mast. The furry warmth against him was something he could happily get used to, and it only seemed like recently that Bunny was even cordial with him. And he was afraid. Bunny was so warm that Jack didn't want him to leave, even though he knew that he had to. 

Bunny didn't ask what he meant, so Jack, regretfully, let it go. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder, this does not have a happy ending.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, if you have questions or comments that you'd like to make anonymously, you can always do so at [my blog](http://www.asknotbug.tumblr.com). Come, talk to me. :) I may not always be in, but I will always answer.


End file.
